`USeBiz.com' Domain Name to Go On Sale; Experts Expect the Name to Break Previous Domain Name Sales Records.

Business Editors, High Tech Writers

COLUMBUS, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 25, 2000

The domain name, USeBiz.com, will be put up for auction August 9, it was announced today by Jeffrey Schneider, a principal agent with The Contact Group International, owner of the USeBiz.com domain name.

The name, which will be auctioned on the site www.AfterNIC.com, is expected to break all valuation records.

The Contact Group International has retained Abner E. Weintraub, an Orlando, Fla.-based leading eBusiness strategy consultant, to facilitate the sale.

"The sale of USeBiz.com comes on the heels of Business.com, which sold for nearly $8 million earlier this year, and several other domains that have sold recently for over $1 million," said Weintraub. "These high valuations emphasize the growing importance of owning precisely the right domain in an increasingly wired economy. The valuations of these meaningful dot-com names also reflect the perception that the best business-oriented dot-com domains have already been taken."

Weintraub added: "Since word spread of the auction of USeBiz.com a few weeks ago, we have had inquiries from bidders in nearly thirty countries. A substantial percentage of organizations on the Fortune, Forbes, and Financial Times rankings of the world's largest businesses have already expressed interest in USeBiz.com, and we expect the excitement will only increase as the auction date draws nearer."

Weintraub offered the following analysis of why USeBiz.com is valuable on multiple levels:

USeBiz.com is Clear and Unambiguous -- In comparison, Business.com, as valuable as it is, is quite general in its meaning, and could refer to any range of business types, products, or services. USeBiz.com clearly delivers the message that the web property it identifies is e-Business (not just any kind of business). Also, the association with the United States, from the "US" portion, is both geographically specific and an important indicator of power and world leadership.

USeBiz.com Works Equally Well in ALL Media -- In order to maximize the domain's value and its return on investment, the organization that purchases USeBiz.com will use the domain intensively in a variety of media: print, audio, outdoor, online, etc. USeBiz.com is brief and very easy to recall, and its spelling is so obvious that it is highly unlikely to be misspelled by consumers seeing it or hearing it worldwide.

USeBiz.com References "e-Biz", the Most Widely Used Abbreviation for "e-Business" -- In the media today, the most widely used abbreviation for the term "e-Business" is "e-Biz". "e-Business" does not shorten meaningfully and effectively to "e-Bus" or anything else other than "e-Biz". Couple this with the world's most recognized 2-letter abbreviation = "US" and it creates all the ingredients needed for world-class branding recognition.

USeBiz.com Contains the sub-word "Use", a Critical Buying-behavior Action Word - A savvy organization will exploit the word "Use", contained in the USeBiz.com domain, in a variety of media for maximum effectiveness. Along with the word "Buy", the word "Use" is the most powerful and frequently used term in advertising to motivate buying behavior. By using different colors, highlights, underlines, and other context cues, "Use USeBiz.com" will become an important element of a total USeBiz.com Internet presence. This further increases the overall value of USeBiz.com at auction.

"Pound for pound, a superior Web address is the most powerful form of perpetual advertising any company can buy," said spokesperson Schneider, The Contact Group International's agent and former marketing analyst for the Rockefeller Foundation. "And this domain is the world's premier Internet business address available today. We believe we have in USeBiz.com a universally recognized branding name that shatters all the paradigms, and creates a new industry standard for the world to follow."

The Contact Group International is a web-based international outsource marketing company.